Dear readers,
It is with great pleasure that we introduce to you the first edition of Construction Law International for 2021.
In this edition, we are excited to introduce a ‘diversity and inclusion’ questionnaire which will be a recurring feature of this magazine, along with our ‘FIDIC around the world’ series. This will feature in each edition and may include responses by way of invitation to individuals or submission should you be inclined to share your experiences. The questions are as follows:
1. What is your name and current job, role or title?
2. When starting out in your career, did you have any role models?
3. What advice did you receive which helped you progress in your career?
4. Do you think that diversity is improving in your particular professional area?
5. What positive steps have you seen organisations take to progress diversity and inclusion?
6. What aspects do you think are still ripe for improvement in organisations?
7. What are the indicators of when a reasonable diversity balance is reached?
8. What do diversity and inclusion mean to you and why are they important?
9. What impact has the Covid-19 pandemic had on diversity in your professional area?
For our updates sections, we are fortunate to have two contributions from Oksana Wright, Sarah Biser and Craig Tractenberg. The first article provides an overview of the notable and substantive revisions to the 2021 International Court of Arbitration Arbitration Rules. The second piece considers a recent United States Supreme Court case which ruled that state-law principles allow non-signatories to enforce arbitration provisions against signatories to arbitration agreements. From Australia, Michael Barnes and Kristy Eaton discuss incoming Western Australia legislation on statutory adjudication, the effect of which will be to close the divide between the western state’s approach and that taken on Australia’s east coast.
Moving to our feature articles, Andrew Tweeddale considers an issue that often arises in international arbitrations, which is the jurisdiction and admissibility of the tribunal. Matthew Finn queries whether Med-Arb is a cost effective and efficient form of dispute resolution which would be suited to Europe, having regard to its success as a means of resolving disputes in Asia.
Joshua Paffey, Rachael King and Rose Leonforte review a recent United Kingdom Supreme Court decision, Halliburton v Chubb, and ask whether the decision provides clarity around an arbitrator’s duty to disclose subsequent appointments.
We have a contribution from the Chair of the Editorial Board, Virginie Colaiuta, in which consideration is given to risks relating to ground conditions under French and English law.
J B Kim and Dukgeun Yun take a close look at back charges, or contra charges, in the common law jurisdictions of Canada, the UK and the US.
In our March 2020 edition we published an article from Yasha Sakhavi which investigated the enforceability of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) C195 indemnity provision under English law. In this edition, we publish part two of the paper, which investigates the enforceability of the AIA C195 indemnity provision under US law based on US anti-indemnity statutes and case law.
From Asia, Andreas Hyungrae Noh considers a subcontractor’s right to claim directly against the employer by reference to a comparison of South Korean law and rules and practices in the Middle East.
Lastly, we are delighted to publish an article from China; Nan Jinlin, Xin Zhifeng and Huang Rongcheng review China’s newly adopted Civil Code and contend that it is a better fit for the construction industry.
We thank our contributors for their insightful articles and we hope you will enjoy reading this edition.
From our diversity and inclusion series, FIDIC around the world, or country updates and feature articles, we invite you all to contribute your thoughts and insights to CLInt by submitting your articles to CLInt.submissions@int-bar.org.
Thomas Denehy
ICP Committee Editor, IBA International Construction Projects Committee, ICP Committee
Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Sydney, New South Wales
thomas.denehy@corrs.com.au
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